September 2nd 2013
Next club meeting Monday 7th October 2013.
Meetings are held
at the Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, commencing at 7.00 p.m.
NOTICES
August Social
This year the
Summer Social, which took place on the 11th August, was a visit to
the Ashmolean museum in Oxford. Eleven members and one
guest participated.
Firstly our host, Mr Shailendra Bhandare,
explained the philosophy behind the complete rearrangement of the museum that
occurred about 3 years ago. From the basement going up, each floor covers a
period of time, from early in the basement to the more modern on the 3rd floor,
with medieval & later on the floors in between. The displays on each floor
cover the many world cultures, practices and their interaction/ differences for
the specified time period. This whole arrangement makes a much more interesting
way to display exhibits rather than the traditional stuffed cases. Within these
displays are coins set in context. Members were free to explore the museum
later.
The next part of
the visit was a guided tour of the new money gallery. Here again a novel
approach has been employed. Along the North wall there is a series of cased
displays showing the development, use and culture of money. For example there
are displays of primitive money, development of paper money & security,
coins demonstrating the power of regimes, the use of coins as jewellery and adornments and so on. Along the South wall
are more traditional displays of country/era coins, eg
Chinese, Indian, Byzantium, Roman, Greek, Islamic, and British. What is good
about these displays is with each having less than 15 exhibits one is not
overwhelmed. In the centre of the room are specific displays, some of which are
hands on for the general public. Two of
these displays are hoards of gold, one Roman and the other Celtic coins. There
is the famous Rawlins crown, some superb Tudor coins, the development of
Britannia & some outstanding Anglo Saxon pennies. For those requiring more details there are
further exhibits in draws below some of the cases.
The final part of
the visit was to see and handle at close quarters coins requested by members.
We were privileged to handle a Petition Crown, an Oxford triple unite, Oxford
civil war coins including a £1, 5/- and 1/-, a Briot
Scottish gold halfcrown, four 17th century tokens of
Devon & Plymouth and type 14 &
15 pennies of Henry I.
Our thanks go to Mr Bhandare & Mr Baker for hosting a very enjoyable visit. A visit to the
Museum and the Money gallery is highly recommended. Members may also like to
know that visits to see specific items in the Herberden
coin room to can be made by prior appointment with the secretary.
September Talk
The expertise in the Club in the various areas of numismatics was amply
shown by Gavin in his talk about countermarks. Having published his book
British Countermarks on Copper & Bronze Coins in 1975, members could be led
to believe that the subject was now settled. Not so, said Gavin, there was
still scope for research - but little hope of monetary gain from this neglected
area.
The illustrated talk covered mainly countermarks on British coins and
tokens, alongside an eclectic mix of countermarks from France, Spain, Malta,
Brazil and the West Indies, with many attributions still unresolved.
Countermarks fulfilled a number of purposes: legitimisation for circulation of
foreign or worn coins, changing the value of the coins, making political and
satirical statements – but always careful to avoid defacing the coinage. That
said some countermarks do exist which risked criminal prosecution, with a
give-away link to the issuer in the form of a trade address!
The talk continued with a survey of countermarks on circulating coinage
in Britain since the 17th Century and a review of the legal attempts
to protect the current coinage, Obsolete and foreign coinage was widely used
for advertising. Concluding the talk with countermarks from the West Indies,
Gavin explained the difficulties in attribution, even to a particular island,
of a range of countermarks.
The talk was well received leading to a number of questions.
Club
Secretary.